Different forms of cleaning devices, such as brushes, have been long known. One such type is the brushes configured as the so called twisted-in-wire brushes. For example in WO 2009/083281 there is described a medical cleaning tool comprising an elongated base member formed of at least two wires being twisted with each other, i.e. the tool has a twisted-in-wire configuration. Moreover, the cleaning tool comprises a plurality of titanium or titanium alloy bristles fixed between the twisted wires and extending away from the twisted wires.
There are several drawbacks with the brush described in WO 2009/083281. The first is related to the manufacturing process. When producing a twisted-in-wire brush, the bristles have to be applied sequential, i.e. one bristle after another. This drawback is in fact also valid for other types of known brushes. Moreover, in view of the specific twisted-in-wire configuration, the stem needs to meet stringent mechanical requirements to retain the bristles and this makes the stem very inflexible.
Furthermore, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,637,061A there is disclosed a brush construction comprising an elongated handle, a strip of flexible sheet material having a folded portion and a tail portion, said folded portion being slit throughout the fold to provide loop bristles throughout a part of its width and providing for an unslit part, said folded portion being wound upon the end of the handle by its unslit part and the tail portion being wound with over-lapping turns along the length of the handle.
One object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device, which is easy and as such inexpensive to produce. Another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device concept having high customer flexibility, i.e. which is possible to use for producing cleaning devices with different properties depending on the customer needs. One such property not possible to obtain with the traditional twisted in wire configuration is a flexible shaft that returns to the straight position once it is released after being bent.